Brazoria County Sheriff's Department

Narcotic Division

Answers from the quiz

1. (d) all of the above.
   Drug use is as old as history, and certain periods of U.S. history are associated with special drug abuse problems. During the Civil War, for example, morphine was used as a pain killer. Morphine's addictive properties were not well understood, and many soldiers became dependent on it.
   Throughout the century, there were periods of "drug scares" created by the use of cocaine at the turn of the century, heroin in the 1920's, marijuana in the 1930's, and heroin again in the 1950's. The 1960's saw a social explosion of drug use of all kinds from LSD to heroin to marijuana.
2. (b) 18-25
3. (b) Through their friends.
4. (b) Alcohol. Many people in the United States have trouble with alcohol, and estimates show that about 10 million are dependent on the drug.
5. (a) Cigarettes. Approximately 300,000 deaths annually from coronary disease, other heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory disease, and other types of cancer have been linked to smoking.
6. (b) Marijuana. In the past marijuana was legally classified as a narcotic, but it isn't now. Marijuana's psychopharmacological effects (the way a drug works on a person's mental and physical system) differ from the effects of narcotics.
7. (c) Methaqualone. Methaqualone is a non barbiturate sedative-hypnotic called a "lude" or "soaper" on the street. But it, like the stimulate drugs, is also a drug of abuse.
8. (c) Peyote. Physical dependence on mescaline (the active ingredient of the peyote cactus) or other hallucinogens has not been verified.
9. (a) Inhalants. Sniffing aerosols or other volatile substances can result in immediate death.
10. (e) The danger of contracting AIDS, hepatitis, or other infections is often overlooked by drug users who inject with nonsterile equipment.
11. (d) Different for each person. Although the time it takes for a person to become physically dependent on heroin varies, we do know that repeated use ultimately causes physical dependence. Some people become physically dependent after using heroin as few as three or four times.
12. (b) Avoid withdrawal. When people stop taking heroin after becoming physically dependent, they develop withdrawal symptoms
    • vomiting
    • muscle spasms
    • profuse sweating
    • insomnia and other symptoms.

    If they once again take the drug, the symptoms disappear.

13. (e) All of the above. All have been used successfully, both individually and in combination, to treat drug abusers.
14. (e) Hours lost from productive work, increased traffic accidents caused by driving under the influence of drugs, and dollars on treatment and law enforcement programs. These are the social costs we all pay, one way or another, for drug abuse.
15. (a) Phencylidine (PCP, "angel dust"). Phencylidine is an unpredictable and highly dangerous drug. Its use has been associated with bizarre and violent behavior, with accidents, and with psychotic episodes.